Commodity Attacks: Understanding the Impact
Cyber-attacks has been increasing widely in the society. Countries has adapted several measures for cyber-attacks gaining access over the personal information. Companies such as LinkedIn and Yahoo has also faced cyber-attack which cost a huge loss of data associated with customers. Therefore, it can be stated that the need to evaluate the way cyber-attacks are being carried out is crucial as this will help in developing better awareness. In this report, the objective is to discuss about three types of hacker threats which has been surfacing widely in the society. The paper will provide detailed description of the three selected hacker and factors for understanding the challenges faced with preventing cyber-attacks.
Commodity attacks referred to the attacks which are perpetrated by attackers who do not possess the skills for performing more advanced attacks or who only prefer to conduct easy attacks. The commodity attacks also try to infect computers by indiscriminately sheering the volume (Brandao and Rezende 2020). The immediate effect of commodity threat include liquid risks, IT risks, market risks and compliance risks. As a result, the need to consider a proper approach for treating the issue becomes crucial.
The main motivation behind carrying out commodity attack over an individual or over an organization is for hampering the image of individuals. Ransom are being demanded against the attacks. Stealing money from an organization or individuals is the main motive behind the attack. In order to secure data, sometimes victim pay the ransom money to the attackers (Nussbaum and Berg 2020).
Organizations invest lot of money in decorating and enhancing the business. However, common mistakes which are being conducted by organizes is implementation of poor cyber security measures. Lot of devices are made open to penetrate within the organization which makes it easier for cybercriminals to access the system.
The short term impact associated with the threat is the fall commodity process. This leads to lowering down the profits and even losses for companies. Whereas, on long term basis loss of income will lead to influencing the organization. The impacts has the capability to negatively influence the income ratio associated with a business. It becomes crucial to evaluate the profit and loss after facing commodity threat.
The identified commodity threat include huge impact for the businesses. As a result, the need to include diversification and flexibility becomes the key mitigation strategy. In addition to this, by introducing multi-factor authentication, patch operating system and by restricting administrative privileges it will become easy to secure the system from commodity attacks (Caravelli and Jones 2019). Therefore, the need to consider the approach of introducing proper measure becomes crucial.
Hacktivism refers to the misuse of computer of internet for exposing a believed justice. The soul perspective of hacktivists is to form a group of criminals who unite with the motive to carry out cyber-attacks in support of a particular cause (Nurmi and Niemelä 2018). Hacktivists typically focuses on targeting entire industry but also sometimes specific organisation who they consider to be aligned with their political views or practices are being attacked. Hence, it can be stated that the attack carried out by hacktivist has a significance impact over the lives of people.
Motivations behind Hacktivism and Associated Vulnerabilities
Hacktivism are mainly politically motivated, socially motivated or religious motivated activists. The politically motivated activism is responsible for seeking opportunities for promoting political agenda which may sometimes lead to extend energy. On the other hand the socially motivated hacktivism focuses on shedding light over social injustices, spanning from government censorship towards human rights (Karagiannopoulos 2021). Lastly, religiously motivated activism acts in name of religious ideology for the purpose of discrediting or encouraging a believer. Sometimes it has been observed that the ideas of activism has the potential to create user error with the sole motive. Hence the need to consider activists as one of the most important factor becomes crucial.
The main vulnerabilities associated with hacktivism are DDoS attacking, Doxing and Defacement. In case of DDoS attack, systems are being overloaded and crashed. Hacktivist searches for a vulnerable spot within the system for the purpose of conducting the attack. On the other hand, it Doxing refers to the actions in which leaking of personal information, confidential and incriminating information associated with a figure or organisation is being carried out. In this form of attack, the focus of the Hacktivist is to gain access over the confidential data for leaking.
Short term affect which is created by the attack included disruption in services data theft or reputational harm. The long-term impact needed to be considered as this may lead to causing financial risk. The need to consider the attack seriously at the earliest area is important as this will help in stopping the promotion of political agendas.
The need to overcome the threats associated with identified attack is very crucial. In order to overcome the situation, the most suitable approach is to bring awareness among individuals. People nowadays are highly influenced by political parties and religious. The need to bring proper awareness and knowledge among each individual is important so that the chances of attacks can be minimised (Lezzi, Lazoi and Corallo 2018). It is also equally important for organization to keep the employees aware of the cybercrimes so that identification can be done at an early stage.
Organised crime reports to the continuing criminal enterprise which is responsible for nationally working for achieving profit. Illicit activities are being conducted with the prospective to create impact over the individuals or a group of individuals (Shulzhenko and Romashkin 2020). These are illegal activities which are conducted for harming the other parties. It can be stated that the organized crime has become a huge threat which has the potential to influence the personal data sets.
Cybercrimes are conducted by attackers with the perspective to gain access over the personal information. In addition to this, business financial details are also extracted from the victim. Organized crimes are basically conducted with the motive to harm a particular organization or a group of people (Watkins 2014). Therefore, individuals must stay aware of the organized crimes so that it cannot influence the data and confidential information.
Due to poor security within organization and lack of firewall, organized criminals get into the organization. Organized criminals are capable of carrying out cyber-attacks due to poor safety measures. That organised crimes can be conducted only when proper access is gained would the system (Viano 2017). Henceforth, every organization must ensure that proper cybersecurity measures are being adapted for removing threats.
Organized Crime: Threats to Personal and Business Data
The short term impact needed to be considered for understanding the influence of organised crimes include loss of customers or chances of loss of sales. However, the need to keep a track over the impacts associated with organized crimes is crucial. When considering long term impact, chances of business loosing position in market, confidential data and failure in achieving business goal increases.
In order to mitigate the organized criminal attacks, the need to restrict the access of unauthorized users is crucial. This will prevent system from getting hacked or influenced (Grabosky 2014). The response must be implemented by every individual for avoiding the organized criminals hampering the performance of business.
Cyber-attack prevention is one of the most important element in every organisation. Some people have heard of the incidents which takes place on a regular basis. To keep information safe and secure from threats, individual must ensure that proper cyber security measures has been implemented (Wells et al. 2014). However it has been observed that there are certain factors which makes prevention of Cyber-attack very much challenging. The factors are as follows:
- Lack of acceptance from the end of employees
- Lack of acknowledgement
- Poor implementation of cyber security practices
- Individuals not paying attention in securing confidential data
- Using same password every where
- Sharing credentials with others
- Lack of awareness regarding the cyber-attacks
- Continuous negligence towards the implementation of security strategies
The above mentioned factors are responsible for delaying the integration of cybersecurity strategies. In order to bring proper performance within an organization, the need to consider a strong procedure is crucial. This helps in preventing the cybersecurity threats from occurring. Henceforth, it can be stated that the prevention strategies need to be incorporated in an efficient manner for securing the data.
Conclusion
The main purpose of the report was to discuss about the cybercrimes which are increasing day by day in society. The report focused on describing three major cyber threats which is creating huge influences over the performance of an organization. Due to poor implementation of cyber security strategies, organization and individuals are becoming vulnerable towards cyber threats. After conducting the research it can be stated that each identified threats can be mitigated successfully with the proper implementation of cyber security strategy. It can be considered that implementation of proper measure is very crucial for mitigating necessary security threats. Hence, the report has identified all possible ways for overcoming the identified cyber threats.
References
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